Our old friend P D Sterling sends along word that the Oak Lawn Library Friends will host a town hall meeting this coming Thursday to discuss the potential impact of city budget cuts. According to the OLLF website, which lists Thursday’s meeting as a CALL TO ACTION, these potential impacts include:
• Branch hours will remain the staff but half the staff will lose their jobs
• Due to reduced staffing, programs such as story time, Summer Reading Program, and other planned outreach could be eliminated
• The overall budget vs. two years ago is reduced by 60 percent
• The cuts are so severe that the library will lose accreditation
• Loss of accreditation will make us lose state and federal funding
• The materials budget will be continue to be cut which will mean fewer new materials and longer wait times for materials you want.
• These wait times could be as long as 8 years!
OLLF is urging people to contact council members Pauline Medrano and Angela Hunt and to attend upcoming budget town hall meetings hosted by the city. Sterling summarized the situation as follows:
The proposed budget cuts may severely hamper the ability of our library to function; the staff may be reduced to the point that community programs will have to be withdrawn, just to provide core services of book- and media-lending.
Oak Lawn Library Friends have been a dynamic force in making Oak Lawn Library a vital community center, and we have grave concerns that extreme reductions will be short-sighted. If national accreditations are lost, outside grants will no longer be available.
We submit that the citizens of Dallas must call for basic services to be maintained, and talking points will be made available for further meetings held by the City during the next six weeks.
The town hall meeting will be at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of the library, 4100 Cedar Springs. For more info, go here.
